Becoming Orange
by gena kumo
Summary: Naruto and Sakura's personal thoughts on colors...along with other things...swirling shafts of yellow light...and falling cherry blossom petals of the palest pink... Oneshot. NaruSaku NarutoxSakura


**Disclaimer: I do not own the manga "Naruto" or these two characters. How could I? It's a Japanese cartoon...and I speak only English!? Paleeeze... Ideas belong to fairycloud22 so please do not copy. Thanks.**

**Side Note: REALLY, seriously. Not as long as it looks. A lot of spacing here.**

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**Bold Words: The ora, the essence, the color of each character (in my words)...and something else... (Maybe a mix of the two...:)**

_Italic Words: Thoughts of Naruto and Sakura (first Naruto then Sakura...if you are confused)_

Plain Jane Words: What they imagine saying (or may say **:D** in the near future...) to each other if they got the chance.

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"Becoming Orange"

Thoughts of Sakura and Naruto:

On colors

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**Shafts of light, spinning, turning, and reflecting off stone walls in the daylight. In constant motion, an ongoing rotation. **

**Rising. Curving. Falling. **

**A balance. **

**Whirling faster and faster, until the shafts meld into one, single, glowing orb, a constant pulsing energy. More powerful than any other than **_**he**_** could maintain. **

**Brighter than the rising sun. **

**The power, the chakra, and the rasagan of...**

**...Naruto...**

_Pink plus yellow makes orange..._

_Maybe that's why I wear it so much, along with black._

_Kind of wishful thinking. Pointless really..._

_We're in different spheres, and to hope that those two worlds would collide, those circles would become one..._

_...its __almost__ impossible._

_Especially since I am who I am...a joker, an idiot, can't take anything seriously, and __annoying, __according to her._

_Stupid!!_ (..._Slaps forehead..._)

_Seems almost like it's not __her__ I have to conquer...it's myself._

_Getting over myself, reaching out, like she does...so much it seems._

_She's amazing._

_She's perfect, strong, has a family, assured. I'm the kid with a demon, trying to make my way...but I WILL__. Even if I have...No family. At all. _

_Except for the one I've found in this team..._

_Yet we're friends. B__est__ friends...aren't we?_

_The closer I am to her it seems, the farther away._

_We are after the same thing...Right?_

_On the same mission. To save our friend..._

_Sasuke..._

_...maybe from himself... _

_I __promised__ her._

_And I think he needs help...from me, since I couldn't stop him...help...from us..._

_Side by Side...and not._

_Equals, except I can't seem to hold back, to control myself, my power. Can't seem to measure up to __him__...And she does everything with a cool head._

_Sometimes, I wish I was a mind reader..._

_And sometimes not..._

_She said she'd do __anything__ for Sasuke._

_Is that how she still feels?_

_She hasn't confessed her love of him to me...or really called him "just a friend..." _

_Ughhhh...Can't she just make up her mind?_

_Sakura...even the name is a sweet as...pink sugar._

_How beautiful can one girl be...?_

_Guess I won't know that till...well...you know..._

_She's just as obsessed about this mission as I am, right?_

_Or is a different sort of obsessed? Like crush...guy obsessed? Blehh..._

_She knows everything about me now; about the Bijuu...I'm an open page... ...but haven't I always been?_

_Just had one secret...a __big__ one._

_We understand each other, even though we've grown...Yamato is right._

_What if I...? __No__...the Kyuubi...hurts her?!_

_Its chakra is orange too...funny how things work out like that._

_Orange is warm...blazing..._

_No..._

_I __can't__ hurt her..._

_Never__ will..._

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**Autumn has not arrived, yet light papery sheets flutter to the ground, silent tears for those lost in the winter of battle. **

**All the same light shade of...pink. **

**Though the petals pile slowly, layer after layer, mounding up to create a small mountain of softness against the hard soil, not a single delicate surface bruises, standing against time, injury, and the weathering of ages.**

**A tough little blossom.**

**Detaching itself painfully from the tree, growing and leaving the security of the cherry branch to give room for growth, so that a new life can appear...namely...**

**A budding flower, a ripening fruit, the late and long awaited blooming of...**

**...Sakura...**

_When yellow, like his hair, is mixed with pink, like my hair, you get the color orange._

_Like a sunset..._

_Like __him__, standing against the sun._

_If you mix my green eyes with his blue...you make turquoise._

_(sarcastically) And if you just add all of those together, you get a __brown_

_Surprise, surprise. (..._shakes head and sighs...)

_What am I saying? Do little color changes mean anything to me?_

_...And yet they do, because I've taken the time to notice them..._

_Orange flames, blazing, rising, and eating away at the closest friend I have..._

_...The Kyuubi's evil chakra._

_It's more painful than anything else...and yet orange is what connects us..._

_It's the color of the anger we feel when we see Orochimaru with Sasuke...Like his __**puppet**__...or __**toy**..._

_I'll kill him. _

_I __can__ and I __will_

_We__ will. _

_Like Itachi, our worst enemy...when we find him...**watch out**. (..._grits teeth, clenches fist...)

_It's the color, thing...emotion...that drives us on, a similar purpose...to save a friend, Sasuke-kun..._

_...But do we have the same motives?_

_...Naruto?_

_...or Sasuke?_

_It's harder than it looks for one girl._

_How do I feel...for them, for everything? Do I want to feel at all?_

_Haven't taken the time to answer that. __Don't__ have the time to. _

_Time goes so very quickly..._

_Naruto has grown strong...and so have I._

_Sasuke has grown...dark._

_Our path has grown uncertain, but I'll go on...,_

_With Naruto...at my side._

_Will __**I**__, the girl who smashes mountains, ever have the power to suppress the evil Kyuubi's chakra? Before it destroys him? I don't know... _

_How __do__ I feel for him? But I __feel__...something...I know that now. _

_Yamato was right._

_Orange...It's now one of my favorite...and least favorite...colors..._

_You can guess why. ;) _

**What do you get when you add a mixture of purest light to the most beautiful of flowers? **

**Light shining through a single petal seems to make no effect, no mark, until you look closer, lean in, and see the heart. The glowing pulse. The hidden veins of the curving petal outlined in beams of light. **

**And the secret glow, the orange blaze of a sunset, revealed to all through its own rose colored sheath. **

**Their inmost being. A deep connection. An inner completion. **

**And a new found... **

**...radiance...

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Naruto-

_If I could only talk to her, then..._

"Sakura-chan, don't grow too old for me, you already are so beautiful.

Don't forget me, cuz...I haven't forgotten you...

Never will...stay with me...

for now...

...at least.

Sasuke needs us...but...I need you too...here...now...together...

It's selfish...I know...but I do...

Sakura...you're strong...right?

But are you strong enough to hear that...even though I care...I want to protect you...I...I can...the Bijuu can...

...Hurt you?

Don't look at me like that...I promise...I won't bite...It hurts me to see you like this...so close...so vulnerable...because of me...

I'm strong enough now. Strong enough to stop it. _Strong enough to go without it._

Hear that? Shhh...don't cry...

**I'm here**...**I will protect you**...**always**...even if it's from myself.

**Believe me**...It's going to be alright. I'll make sure of that...

_Sakura_...**for you**"

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Sakura-

_If I could say something to him...what would I say?_

"Naruto, I'm worried. I know...I worry too much; I cry a lot.

But this time...I'm worried...

About you...

**Don't**** die**.

Please, don't die.

The yellow-orange sun can't die, can it?

Just promise me you'll fight, you'll try hard not to...

(_won't__ let them take the Bijuu from you.)_

I don't know what I'd do if you...did.

Naruto...

**Promise**** me.**

You've done it before.

**Lifelong Promise...**"

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Side Note: Really love writing the thoughts of characters...the reason y this is so long is because i decided to do two of my favorites...Naruto & Sakura! **:D** I'm trying to decide if I'm going to section this off into chapters...so please review! Had so much fun writing this...especially the last part w/ Sakura...some of it made me cry...I get SO tied up into my writing...

Just to make this clear as crystal...NO INDUENDO INTENDED IN THIS PIECE OF WRITING! _(fairycloud22: troublesome shippers...)_ you can interperet it any way you want to, everyone sees art and writing in a different way...just know how it is...everything was written w/ clean intent. Only one part suggests "it"- which shall remain unamed...(cuz all guys, even the best ones, have it slip into their minds at some point in time; its the way things naturaly are. But really it all depends on how they chose to react to their thoughts.) the part when naruto considers- _Guess I won't know that till...well...you know..._ but even then (in my thoughts anyways) he was considering not what will happen NOW at age 15, but in the future (namely when he wins sakura's hand...a.k.a.- they tie the knot and get married **:D **commitment is a good thing...for Kplus shippers anyways)

Also the _papery petals_ description does not relate to Konan (from the Atasuki) in the least. That's just how cherry blossom petals feel...kind of silky, and light as parchment. Sakura (cherry blossom) trees are, in the words of wikipedia, "a symbol of feminine beauty...falling blossoms are metaphors for fallen warriors who died bravely in battle..." Thus they are symbolic of Sakura's tears for the ninjas close to her...the ones that are suffering...and the ones she worries about...

Had a little hinting of yin and yang and Asian philosophy at the beginning, relating the concept of balance to Naruto's unlimited energy, his spirit, and his rasagan...**:D**...(It's officially my favorite jetsu... One because its Naruto's...and two, because Minato/Yondaime/the 4th Hokage invented it!! **:D**)

And their "connection" is not physically related. (Just to make it clear to all you people out there...Kplus person that I am) Their connection comes from their individual characters and hearts, and that is what makes it so special. (AND makes me love NaruSaku **:D**)


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